OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC introduced a new policy for community and campus radio stations on Thursday which, among other revisions, will provide the sector with stable funding.
The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) will see its annual funding increase by over $700,000, which will be distributed among the more than 140 community and campus radio stations across the country. The CRFC is a not-for-profit organization that supports the development of non-commercial, community-based broadcasters.
The funds will be supplied by commercial radio broadcasters through a reallocation of the contributions they must make each year toward the development of Canadian content, benefitting the campus and community radio sector at no additional cost to the commercial radio sector.
The policy also emphasizes the importance of local reflection as well as the participation of volunteers in all areas of a station’s operations.
"Community and campus radio stations serve a distinct need within the broadcasting system," said Michel Arpin, the CRTC’s vice-chairman of broadcasting, in a statement. "In the years to come, these stations will have access to predictable funding so that they may continue to offer local information, give exposure to emerging Canadian artists and provide opportunities for volunteers to participate in the broadcasting system."
The Commission also pledged to provide campus radio stations with greater flexibility by replacing hourly advertising limits with weekly limits, and took steps to simplify its licensing regime and to harmonize as much as possible the regulations for community and campus radio stations.
In a dissenting opinion, Commissioner Marc Patrone expressed concern that the policy did not go far enough to keep community non-profit operations from becoming more commercial.
“In fact, not only did we reject the appeals of industry to strengthen regulations that would have distinguished the community sector from the commercial one, we watered down existing ones”, he wrote.
Click here for the full policy.
